


Fall Into The Middle Distance

by Snow



Category: Shelter (2007)
Genre: Community: au_bingo, Far Future Fic, Gen, Grandchildren, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-01
Updated: 2010-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-10 08:38:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cody had always understood families to be made from the people you love and who love you, and he thought it important to pass that on to his own children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall Into The Middle Distance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kristin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristin/gifts).



> Written for the square of Fantasy &amp; Supernatural: Fairy Tale of AU_bingo from the suggestion of kristin that I make the fairy tale be Cody telling his children of Zach and Shaun like it's a fairy tale.

"Tell me a story!" Lily, Cody's four-year-old, demanded.

"What kind of story?" he asked.

"One about a dragon!" It would be misleading to say that Michael was in a dragon phase, given the fact that he'd been obsessed with them for most of his six years.

"No, one about Grandpa Shaun and Grandpa Zach!"

Cody smiled at his children. "How about I do both?

"Once upon a time there was a fierce dragon."

"Is the dragon Grandpa Zach or Grandpa Shaun?" Lily asked.

"Grandpa Shaun," Cody said, just because he couldn't picture anyone less likely to breathe fire than Shaun. "Now, are you going to let me tell the story?"

"Of course."

"The fierce dragon was very territorial and it didn't get on well with most people. But the dragon had a soft spot for his younger brother, and for the brother's best friend."

"Was that Grandpa Zach?"

"Yes. Prince Zach was unusual in that not only was he best friends with the dragon known as Gabe, he also didn't mind the Shaun-dragon." Cody grinned. Shaun-dragon was a lot of fun to say. "Time passed, and everyone grew up. Gabe-dragon went away to a foreign land, where he studied much and learned how to take over his father's business. Prince Zach got engaged to Princess Tori."

"_Aunt_ Tori?"

"The one and only. Hey, Aunt Tori would make an awesome princess."

"Her and Zach?" Michael made his whole face look skeptical.

Cody didn't say that he still kind of remembers thinking that Zach and Tori would be together. Of course, that was back in the days when Cody had been told to call Zach Uncle. "You trying to skip to the ending?"

"No," Lily said.

"Okay then. Prince Zach and Princess Tori were engaged for many months, because they both cared for each other. But one day Princess Tori was captured by a dragon."

"A Shaun-dragon or a Gabe-dragon?"

"Neither. An evil kind of dragon." Cody thought of what would happen if a dragon tried to kidnap Aunt Tori and grinned. "But Prince Zach thought of the ways he could rescue his Princess, and he went off to ask Shaun-dragon for help. The easiest way to defeat a dragon is, after all, with another dragon. And Shaun-dragon was the fiercest dragon of them all.

"But Shaun-dragon was a little confused as to why Prince Zach was asking him for his help. 'Don't you hate me?' Shaun-dragon asked.

"Prince Zach frowned. 'Why would I hate you?' He thought Shaun-dragon was a bit intimidating, yes, everyone did, but Prince Zach certainly didn't hate him." Cody was pretty sure he was never going to tire of saying Shaun-dragon.

"Meanwhile, Princess Tori refused to wait for Prince Zach to come rescue her. Instead she tied up the evil dragon using her, uh, hair ties, and then she stole all his gold and ran away to a foreign land." The year Aunt Tori had spent in Ireland had been more than a little frightening for Cody. Even though he had been thirteen and it had been years since Jeanne had left, Cody was still convinced that everyone would leave him. When she came back, though, she was so full of stories and life and it had been totally worth it.

"So when Prince Zach and Shaun-dragon stopped arguing about how they actually kind of liked each other and went to the lair of the evil dragon, they found a note from Princess Tori telling them that she saw how much they loved each other and now they could be together and she could be Queen of the foreign land she'd run off to.

"So they all lived happily after."

"Even Uncle Gabe?" Michael said.

Cody stifled a laugh. "Yes, even Gabe-dragon."


End file.
